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Sunday, May 22, 2011

Grilled Cheese & Green Thumbs

So today was NOT my usual lazy Sunday... not one bit.

I went to Savannah to meet my friends LC and MTM for brunch downtown... and finding parking was a disaster! We forgot that all the local colleges are having graduation ceremonies in these last few weekends in May. But it was all worth it, because our brunch destination was Soho South Cafe!

Soho South Cafe is an adorable restaurant "where food is an art". It is an art gallery and restaurant in one, and the furniture is extremely eclectic, kind of like a vintage/antique warehouse feel. It has delicious food, and is always worth the wait to get seated.

LC and I have a habit of choosing the exact same thing off a restaurant's menu (individually, without discussion!) and it makes us laugh every time we do. This is the third time I've eaten at Soho with her, and both got the DELICIOUS modern grilled cheese & tomato basil bisque soup. Grilled cheese? At a restaurant? HECK YES. This grilled cheese has smoked gouda, cheddar, gruyere, and pimiento aioli, all melted together on sourdough bread. Dip it in the soup, and you're in cheese heaven... why have one cheese when you can have a plethora?

After brunch, I said goodbye to the ladies and headed to Target and Lowe's for a little shopping. This is where my day snowballed into something a bit crazy.

My friend LD could not take her baby green tomato plants home to France, so I told her I would care for them. Well, after a few days, I figured I should actually plant them, since they would soon require stakes and have to move from their little cups. Here is where it went wrong.

Aubrey's train of thought: "Well, the garden lady at Lowe's says I can put each plant into its own pot, but that is expensive. So I should plant them in the ground. And if I'm going to till a garden anyways, I don't want to JUST have green tomatoes. Ooh, roma and red tomatoes! Let's get those! Look, zucchini! I can make zucchini bread. Strawberries? Smoothies... Maybe some parsley too. And look at those perennials! Those will be pretty, and I only have to do the hard work once."

If you give a mouse a cookie... Suddenly my car was full of garden soil, plants, and other paraphernalia. (I think three pots for those little plants would have been cheaper...) Ugh. Then I got home, pulled on my gardening gloves, and got to work.

I know NOTHING about plants. Despite my Hoosier farmland roots (my Grandma and Grandpa had an awesome garden and orchard!), I do not have a green thumb. So this process was WAY too difficult, and WAY exhausting. I know I put the plants too close together, I know my yard's soil is too sandy and I probably needed more potting soil, and I know that they all might DIE. But it all seemed like a good idea at the time!

I haven't figured out where to put the perennials yet. Maybe add to the landscaping around the house...

So now LD's little plants are no longer all alone, and I have a weird-looking random garden out back. Great. Now I'm about to pass out on the sofa, wondering HOW THE HECK I ended up spending my afternoon creating a haphazard garden, all so that I could "save money" replanting some little green tomato plants that my friend left to my care.

3 comments:

It's a process! We've got a plot in our community garden this year, and instead of starting with seedlings, we started with seeds..inside...with a whole hothouse setup in the 2nd bedroom. Now everything is on the patio (too wet and or cold STILL to go in the ground) with my inspirational patio planting that I've been doing on the side.

Overboard?

(BTW, I love ordering grilled cheese in restaurants, one of my favorites)

It's SOOOO hot in Georgia right now, that lady told me I was a little too late to start with seeds. I've always wanted an herb garden, but all I have out there is some Italian flat-leaf parsley. I have lots of dried herbs to use in cooking, and the parsley will be a pretty green garnish I think.

If this goes well, I could be hooked on growing my own produce!

Grilled cheese and tomato soup is my FAVORITE. When I was in Iraq, every time they had tomato soup I would have them make a panini with all the available cheeses for me. They always wanted me to take the pre-made greasy grilled cheese, but I like TONS of cheeses in my sandwich.

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